A music shed owned by John Earl of Clevedon N Somerset in UK won the much prized glory of winning The Shed of The Year 2011 from some very strong opposition. Even though it’s only 10 foot X 12 foot – this shed has become famous to music fans the world over. To date over 1,000 musicians have had their songs videoed in this shed.

The Music Shed - Winner 2011

This competition is drawing entries from around the world and has many different categories. Also Australia has been well represented each year – but to date no success with any prizes.

The full story can be seen here with many other sheds that didn’t win.

Here’s another Australian entry that is amazing – how did they fit all the stuff inside?

Inside ManBower’s Shed, Sydney

Outside of ManBower's Shed, Sydney

It would be good to see this level of enthusiasm for shed competitions in Australia.

Shedeye has talked extensively to people within the Shed Industry and it is unanimous that the shed industry is facing some tough times.

There are geographical pockets that are doing well, this is however the exception to the rule.

Shedeye has a theory that shed sales follow car sales reasonably closely, as both sheds and cars represent large discretionary spending for clients. Sheds represent purchases that can easily be put off, and given that Australians are paying back debt rather than making purchases, sheds are suffering as they are deemed a big purchase in these uncertain times.

Take a look as these ABS figures for Car Sales.

Short Term Car Sales

The above graph shows that the number of new car sales in the month from April 2011 to May 2011 alone has decreased by approximately 7.6% (Seasonally Adjusted). This is a whopping drop.

The next graph is showing an unfortunate trend.

Long Term Car Sales

There was a big drop after the GFC due to uncertainty, and over the last 3 years sales have not reached the same levels and are on a significant downwards trend starting in April 2010.

What does this mean for Shed Sales in the future? Shedeye makes a rash prediction that shed sales are going to drop further for at least another 6 months.

It is not all doom and gloom though, the 4 years of sub-par growth should see a good increase in pent up demand that will see shed sales growth increase, potentially to new highs in a couple of years.

To the shed sellers out there, keep you eye on Car Sales, as this may give you the heads up on your future cash flows.

I have purchased a 6 x 6 single roller door shed that I am erecting and have to do my own slab. Some people told me it’s easier to pour the slab after the shed is built and it covers all the holes in the wall sheets. But the shed supplier told me to pour the slab first as the steel sheeting supplier warranty would be voided as direct contact with concrete rusts the sheets.

Which one is right?

Concrete, due to the high alkaline, will rust colorbond quite quickly.

Take heed as the advice from bluescope is

“Erecting the shed prior to the concrete slab being poured, consequenty using the steel walling as formwork, is not recommended. The predominant problem associated with this poor practice is accelerated corrosion due to:

Contact with wet cement, which is strongly alkaline.

Shrinkage of cured concrete enabling the build-up of dirt and debris in the gap left between the slab and the wall.“

(bluescopesteel website).

In addition to the above advice, you should maintain a free drip edge, this is very important otherwise you get a build-up of water at the cut edge of the steel, and rust is guaranteed!

As always there are exceptions to the rule, and some of the best shed companies and builders do in fact pour the slab after the shed is built, the techniques used to achieve that are destined for another article! The owner builder should stick with the advice in this article.

There are many tips and tricks that you can use to reduce shed prices, without compromising the engineering of the shed.

One such trick, to reduce your garage or shed prices, is to make sure the length of your shed takes on the largest dimension.

9 m x6 m x2.4 m

6 m x9 m x2.4 m

Shed Buyers will often increase the width of the gable (span) as per the first picture in preference to the length of the side as per the second picture.

The wider you go on the gable end the more effect you will have on the structural engineering requirements, meaning more steel and a bigger shed price. If you want cheap shed prices, increase the number of bays (length) of the shed, as you will not be modifying the basic structural engineering requirements.

What do you think the difference in shed prices is between the two above sheds? Remember they have exactly the same room in the shed (54 meters squared). The shed price difference is a marked 5-9% difference, by simply increasing the gable end (top picture) over the length (bottom).

If you want to keep you shed prices down, make sure that you increase the length over the gable. Kit Sheds are designed to be extended in bays, indefinitely length wise.

An additional examples is

A 7 meters wide x 9 meters long x 2.4 meters high shed, compared to a 9 meters wide x 7 meters long x 2.4 meters high shed. There is approximately a 3-6% difference in shed price.

The amount of shed price variation will vary according to the shed seller (as they all have slightly different engineering), however you can rest assured there will be an increase in shed price if you select a larger gable, no matter the shed seller you choose.

Interest Free, the joke is on you!

In Summary

There is no such thing as interest free finance; the finance company will make money on any deal.

You are paying at least 7.8% interest and you are paying most of this upfront.

If you pay one day late outside of the fictional interest free period you are up for up to 27.8% interest

If you are extremely disciplined and pay off the loan in full before the fictional interest free period is over, then it is actually quite a reasonable interest rate.

The details

There is no such thing as interest free when buying sheds and garages, and in fact it is beyond Shedeye’s comprehension how this practice is allowed, given our strict Trade Practices Act.

The interest free deal is touted by many of the major shed companies in Australia and is little different to the tactics that major retailers use.

The first thing you need to understand is that you can usually only get finance for the Shed Kit price, as the cost of erecting the shed, the slab and site preparation is not covered.

Let’s say you are offered a $5,000 shed kit price and the Shed distributor is offering this as a 12 months interest free deal. You are definitely paying interest, and in fact you are generously paying the interest up front, and here is why:

The distributor has to pay a “Fee” to cover the interest free period of approximately 5%-6% for the total 12 months upfront. In dollars this means approximately $239-$284 paid up-front.

There is a $65.00-$120.00 “Establishment Fee” paid up front to take out the loan.

There is a $5-$7 “Monthly Account Keeping Fee” for the duration of the loan.

Does this look interest free to you?! This equates to an additional $364 to $488 on top of your shed price. This means that the distributor will charge you this amount to cover their costs and label it interest free.

You should have been able to get the shed for a price of $4,522 – $4,646 without signing up for the interest free DEAL! To put it another way, you’re paying between 7.8% and 10.8% on top of the price of your shed.

There is no such thing as an interest free period, you simply pay more for the shed!

As far as getting finance for your sheds, garages or carports, this is the second cheapest option after drawing down on the equity in your house. However, if you do not pay off the entire balance of the loan before the interest free period lapses, you’ll have to pay approximately 20% interest on the entire outstanding balance (the same way credit cards operate). For example, if you pay off the balance on the first day AFTER the 12 months interest free period expires, the shed will now cost you $6,000.00 and you would have paid a massive 27.8%-30.8% interest rate.
If you don’t plan to pay the loan off within the interest free period, you must consider different options. In order of preference, redraw on your existing home loan, get a line of credit for any property you have or take out a personal loan, secured if possible. If all of these are out of the question, then do not buy the shed!

The home or domestic garage or shed has become an icon in the Australian backyard. Whether it is a normal 6 X 6 double door garage or a 3 x 9 storage shed – this industry will be affected by every single company involved in the manufacture of all the components of this iconic “SHED”.

So who are these companies that need to charge you more as a result of the Carbon Tax? They happen to be the biggest emitters of CO2 in Australia because we mine minerals (including coal etc) to manufacture simple things such as steel, aluminium, glass, cement, paint, timber (YES – these guys do emit CO2 to cut timber), carpet, plastic downpipes, electrical wiring, and the list is endless. All of these companies will have to increase prices in order to pay for the Carbon tax – and the answer is that you & I will pay. There is no alternative or secret formula in the production of steel for example – the operational side of steel producers are at the apex in efficiency in the world as far as CO2 emissions are concerned. Australian giant BlueScope and One Steel have the most efficient steel making plants in the World – so what happens when a Tax is added to the industry? The basic recipe for steel making is complex – yet simple in the chemical conversion – Iron Ore is represented by Fe the symbol the same as C represents Carbon – Oxygen is represented by the symbol O – and the process of steel making (Plus energy – coal furnaces) is as follows:

Iron Ore is represented by the symbol – FeO – (One atom of Iron plus one atom of Oxygen) and Carbon Monoxide is represented by CO – (one atom of carbon plus one atom of Oxygen) – this is chemistry and the conversion is represented by the following formula.

FeO + CO = Fe + CO2 – all the numbers on both sides add up – but it is the heat required by burning coal or fuel to complete this process that the Carbon Tax will be implemented on. Because it takes 2 tonne of CO2 to make 1** Tonne of steel – the price will increase by exactly the Carbon Tax per tonne at the source. But – it doesn’t stop there – it needs to be rollformed, transported and erected. Don’t expect any change out of 16% to 30% per tonne at the end site and this is a conservative figure. Science currently does not have the answers to improve the process to reduce the CO2 emissions greatly – and the BlueScope website has plenty of information on exactly what has been discussed above. The end result is that it will be cheaper to import steel (finished product) along with all other building materials like Aluminium, cement, glass etc from countries (like China) that have no Carbon Tax.

This tax directly on manufacturing industries will be a major setback for the shed industry if they cannot afford to pay this tax – by either adaption or economically – to compete with imports. The result will be no more Australian Made – developed and innovated by Aussie industry – last but not least – a very sorry and diminished Shed Industry.

So if your shed is approximately 12 tonne of steel, concrete, plastic, glass, etc (the average weight of a 6 x 6 garage shed) – then why can’t you get a credit against this tax if you grow plants or store timber over the next five years (or whatever is deemed acceptable) to offset the emissions of the 29 to 40 tonnes of CO2 that has been released to the atmosphere to manufacture this shed. For example a gum tree that has a height of 30 meters and a diameter of 800 millimetres and is three years old will have stored nearly 5.885 tonnes of CO2. In this case your shed would be paid for in carbon tax in 8 years approximately. It is the environment we are talking about – not CO2.

**Steel making requires a high heat – the furnace – they need CO for the conversion to molten Iron (the CO comes from the coal or furnace fuel) so less than one tonne is used in the conversion and the other plus tonne is used in the heat = 2 tonnes. The price of carbon dioxide (not carbon) to make one tonne of steel – hence the carbon tax

How do you think the shed industry will be after you study the ramifications below?

What will be the implications on shed prices of the current governments carbon tax of approximately $20 per tonne of carbon dioxide along the supply chain of manufacturing, delivering and erecting a shed on your property. Just to explain carbon tax simply – is if you look at your electricity bill – it will show how many tonnes of CO2 you have put into the atmosphere simply by living and doing the normal things everyday. Approximately 4 tonnes of CO2 is expelled into the air if your bill is around $500.00 per quarter.

To manufacture, process, deliver and erect your shed is also putting this CO2 into the atmosphere and will be calculated accordingly, adding to shed or garage prices. The basic principles of economics will apply to all industry, transport, offices etc, so in dollar terms, you will be hit with an additional Carbon Tax amount relative to the location, power usage in all areas and the construction of your shed.

Indicators so far are expecting in manufacture and transport of 16% increase plus the additional charges the shed resellers, manufacturers, transport companies and administration will charge to cover these costs anywhere up to 20% increase in shed prices . BIG, BIG BIG and will get bigger – but don’t worry it will be on everything from roast lamb, fuel, holidays, restaurants, etc etc. Shed and Garage prices are not alone and if you are looking to save money – purchase your shed (and everything else) before the introduction of Carbon Tax but if you want to stop CO2 entering the atmosphere you must wait for the introduction of Carbon Tax!!!!!!

Will this make substitutes such as wood and brick more price competitive? Are steel price rises in conjunction with the carbon tax going to make shed prices too expensive for the backyard shed?

In this case a carport was used as an entertainment pavilion, however the council gave approval as a Class 10a building in the expectation that the structure was to be used as a carport. When the builder went to sell the property, the carport was completed and used in the promotions for the sale of the property, by the builder, as an entertainment pavilion. The applicants bought the property on the understanding that the structure could be used as an entertainment pavilion.

The new owner’s decided to put in a pool that would block vehicular access to the Class 10a structure. The council came to the conclusion that “…when used as an entertainment pavilion it is considered habitable i.e used as part of living in the residence.”

This case became complex and eventually the ruling from the Tribunal was “in accordance with Section 4.2.34(2)(b) of the Integrated Planning Act 1997, changes the decision of the Toowoomba City Council, dated 6 September 2006, by allowing the structure to remain in it’s current location and re-classifies the existing structure from a Class 10a carport to a Class 1a building subject to the structure remaining 100% open at all times”

Who was responsible for paying the additional fees to convert the building from a Class 10a to a Class 1a? Not to mention the amount of time that was invested from the new owners, in presenting their case to the Council and Tribunal and the delays it caused to adding their pool!

There are a great many cases where the classification has been made incorrectly and it has caused a great deal time delays, and in some cases cost.

According to the BCA (Building Code of Australia) a Class 10a building Is defined as a non-habitable building being a private garage, carport, shed, or the like.

While the BCA defines a Class 1 as one or more buildings, which in association constitute—

(a) Class 1a — a single dwelling being—

(i) a detached house; or

(ii) one of a group of two or more attached dwellings, each being a building, separated by a fireresisting

wall, including a row house, terrace house, town house or villa unit;

or

(b) Class 1b — a boarding house, guest house, hostel or the like—

(i) with a total area of all floors not exceeding 300 m2 measured over the enclosing walls of the

Class 1b building; and

(ii) in which not more than 12 persons would ordinarily be resident,

When we are talking sheds, it is almost always the distinction between a Class 10a and Class 1a that cause confusion as Class 1b is unlikely to be a shed!

This makes the classification quite a simple task and it is all in the definition of Habitable and Non-Habitable rooms.

Class 1a building

If you have a room in your shed (even if the shed contains only a single room) that contains any of

Bedroom

Living Room

Lounge Room

Music Room

Television Room

Kitchen

Dining Room

Sewing Room

Study

Playroom

Family Room

Sun Room

Then you have a Class 1a building.

Class 10a building

And if all of your rooms in your shed contain only

Bathroom

Laundry

Water closet

Pantry

Walk-in robe

Corridor

Hallway

Lobby

Photographic darkroom

Clothes-drying room

Then you have a Class 10a building.

The only tricky bit

The only ambiguity left in the BCA definition of Habitable and Non-Habitable is the statement that rooms or “Spaces that are not occupied frequently or for extended periods” are Non-Habitable.
So what are items like a Cinema or theatre room defined as? The are defined a Habitable under this definition (take a look at this advisory notice from the SA Government).

Why is this even important? From a paperwork and regulation perspective it is far easier for Class 10a buildings!

Just when you think that there can be no more steel shed price rises, you can think again, shed prices are on the rise again, and the steel manufacturers have stated that there are some more significant rises to come in 2011.

Shedeye showed that the January shed price rise was insignificant and for a standard 6 meters wide * 6 meters long * 2.4 meters high shed or garage you were in for less than a hundred dollars shed price increase.

The March price rise is set to hit the shed price a great deal more as it will directly impact the price of everything excluding colorbond products (January only effected colorbond products)

The average price rise is approximately 10% and as these products make up most of the weight of a shed, you are going to see bigger shed prices or garage prices after March. The shed price is all about the weight of steel that is used to construct them.

As has been previously shown Bluescope has a virtual monopoly within the shed industry, and the question needs to be asked, is Australia paying too much for its steel sheds as a result?

This article in the Herald Sun just goes to show how important it is to do your own measurements and explain to your distributor what you are putting in your garage or shed, otherwise you may end up in a legal battle!

While this was an off the plan brick garage, there are many cases when the Roller Door Clearance and length of steel kit sheds have been incorrect, causing hassle for both the distributor and the customer. The Garage is useless if you can’t fit in your cars or Caravan and access your storage and workspace areas!

If you are going to put two cars in your garage, then make sure you measure them, or look at the car specification sheet for your make and model. A standard Holden Commodore (VE) model is approximately 4.9 meters long and 1.8 meters wide. If you wanted to put two of these in your garage and pack them like sardines, end to end, you would need slightly over 10 meters in shed length, however you also have to allow for lost space inside the shed due to the frame.

In reality, you really would not go less than 12 meters as this would give you a little bit of additional room at a low shed price increase (providing you are not increasing the gable end of the shed, an extra meter can add quite a bit of cost depending on how wide your shed already is). The extra two meters allows for the frame inside the garage, some room at each end of the shed and some room between your cars, this is if you have the space, of course!

You also need to consider if you want space for a workshop at the side or end of the shed, or storage room. If so, an allowance must be made, not just for your workshop or extra storage room but also to allow you access to the space itself.

So if you want to use your new Shed or Garage to put in your 4WD, your caravan, your truck or your Hum-Vee, make sure you measure and then give yourself some additional room to get in and out of the motor vehicles.

Who are the market leaders in Australia by number of Shed Distributors?

The Shed Distributor Leader Ladder (by number of distributors per state)

Australian Capital Territory (ACT)

Fair Dinkum Sheds, Ranbuild and Total Span

Others

A three way tie for first place in Canberra. Commercial land is prohibitively expensive and is as rare as hens teath in the ACT so most of the distributors set up camp in nearby NSW border towns of Queenbeyan and Murrumbateman!

The top 3 have most of the market!

New South Wales (NSW)

Ranbuild

Fair Dinkum Sheds

Wide Span Sheds

Capital Steel Buildings

The Shed Company

Garge World

Allgal

Titan

Totalspan

Sidach Sheds

Sheds Online

Metromax

Others

The top 3 have over 56% of the market.

Northern Territory (NT)

Ranbuild

Sheds Online , Sidach Sheds, Fair Dinkum Sheds

Others

Queensland (QLD)

Ranbuild

Titan

Fair Dinkum Sheds

Totalspan

Wide Span Sheds

Garge World

Tuff-Span

The Shed Company

Sheds Online

Australian Garages and Carports

Capital Steel Buildings

Others

The top 3 have 47% of the market. QLD is clearly a very mature shed market as is evident by the very equal distribution of distributors across the top half a dozen. When you take a look at the origins of many Australian Shed Companies, QLD is where it all began.

South Australia (SA)

Fair Dinkum Sheds

Ranbuild

Wide Span Sheds

Garage World

Sidach Sheds

Others

The top 3 have over 75% of the market.

Tasmania (TAS)

Sidach Sheds

Fair Dinkum Sheds

Ranbuild

Widespan

Others

Victoria (VIC)

Sidach Sheds

Ranbuild

Fair Dinkum Sheds

Totalspan

Wide Span Sheds

The Shed Company

Capital Steel Buildings

Garage World

Sheds Online

Others

Top 3 have 74% of the market.

Western Australia (WA)

Ranbuild

Wide Span Sheds

Fair Dinkum Sheds

Garage World

The Shed Company

Sheds Online

Others

There is some real competition in the distributor sector, even when you consider that the big guys own quite a few of the biggest players. There is clear domination in some state, with others laying the battle ground as brands extend from their founding locations, it is starting to heat up! Watch this space.

Who exactly are each of these distributors?

Ranbuild started small in 1949 and was then know as the R & N Building Company, and was based in Newcastle, NSW. Ranbuild was purchased by Lysaght (Bluescope) in 2004 and is now the biggest wholesaler group in Australia. Ranbuild is a powerful brand in the Shed industry and it easily identified by the muscle bound builder.

Fairdinkum Sheds, trading as AG&S Building Systems Pty Ltd was purchased by Stramit in August 2007. Fairdinkum Sheds is the second largest wholesaler shed group in Australia and it too has a very powerful brand, the slogan “Get it into your head, get a Fairdinkum Shed” is a classic! Fairdinkum sheds operates in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (trading as Contour Steel Buildings) and South Africa.

Totalspan is part of the Versatile Buildings group and is a major player in the shed wholesaler game. They have numerous distributors spread throughout Australia and NewZealand. The Versatile group also owns Spanbilt Sheds. Totalspan sources its materials from Lysaght (Bluescope).

Wide Span Sheds is another big player and was founded in Queensland (most of the shed companies in Australia started in QLD, see why here) in the year 2000. They have an even spread of distributors around Australia. Widespan Sheds sources its materials from Lysaght (Bluescope).

The Shed Company is a shed wholesaler and distributor franchise system founded in late 2004, effectively the same as most of the other players with more discrete boundaries for its distributors. The Shed Company sources its materials from Stramit and has a good coverage of distributors across Australia.

Garage World / Shedboss is owned by the same company as Fairdinkum Sheds. Stramit, also know as Fletcher Building Group acquired the Morinda group (who owns both the ShedBoss and Garage World brands) in May 2008.

Titan Garages & Sheds is a privately owned family business that has been around since 1991. Titan is unique to its peers in that it has complete verticle integration in the shed supply chain, being the distributor, wholesaler and manufacturer. They are very strong in QLD and are starting to make inroads into other states.

Sidach Sheds is another privately owned family business that started from the opposite end of the country, in sunny Tasmania. The have grown aggressively and dominate Tasmanian and Victoria. They currently source their materials from Lysaght (Bluescope).

Metromax is one of the few distributors that does not pay ball in the rollforming arena of Lysaght and Stramit. The have a “close association” with Metroll and source their materials from them. They don’t have a great deal of distributors, however they leverage Metrolls network of sites.

Tuff-Span is a player in the QLD market and unlike their competitors they deal with Fielders to source their materials. Fielders is a small player in the shed market relative to its massive peers, however Fielders does have is own brand called Fielders Endurance Sheds & Structures.

There are still a few missing from this list, they will be added shortly.

If you don’t want to meet a Shed Distributor at a party then it’s a good idea to live in Canberra. But if you do want to meet one, then live in Queensland!

Shedeye has conducted a study to determine the distributor density per state and the results are interesting!

State

Indexed Relative Number of Distributors per capita

ACT

100

SA

190

VIC

196

NSW

223

TAS

295

NT

319

WA

324

QLD

493

This shows that you are nearly 5 times more likely to meet a shed distributor in QLD than if you live in the ACT. Victoria and SA are the surprise here, both with very large populations but with a relative low distributor population per capita.

This gets even more interesting when you start to question why, as there are quite logical reasons for this disparity. Taking a look at Land Area, Population density and the % of the population in the capital city in each state shows a good part of the story.

Combining all of this data shows strong correlation between the percentage of population in the capital cities, an almost linear relationship with a couple of blips! The population density has less of a correlation, due to most of Australia being an arid and barren place.

State

Indexed Relative Number of Distributors per capita

Population density (/km²)

% of population in capital

ACT

100

137.53

99.6%

SA

190

1.56

73.5%

VIC

196

23.87

71%

NSW

223

8.44

63%

TAS

295

7.08

41%

NT

319

0.15

54%

WA

324

0.79

73.4%

QLD

493

2.26

46%

The correlation is very clearly related to the population density and the % population in capital cities. One of the reasons for this correlation is attributed to the size of the blocks of land; small suburban blocks may not be suitable to hold large domestic sheds, while larger blocks are. Hence the percentage of the population in the capital city is one of the strongest influences, coupled with the policies governing the size of the blocks and the restraints in regard to planning permits on sheds in these cities.

QLD has the best conditions for Shed Distributors in Australia, with a relatively low centralization of population in the capital city and a relatively low population density. Victoria is the real surprise with very high percentage of the population in the capital and a very high population density relative to all other states. This again is a clear indicator of why there are relatively less distributors in Victoria.

The story is a bit more complex than the above tables indicates. As with all statistics there is more to some of these stories than meets the eye. For example, the Canberra market is largely served by nearby NSW border towns, due to the prohibitively expensive and rare commercial land in the ACT. That said, I think you will find that this is an interesting piece of analysis!

Shedeye has analysed the shed industry down to discrete regions to ascertain potential areas that are saturated or under-serviced. This report is available on request from support@shedeye.com.au

Shedeye has conducted analysis[1][2] on Australia’s Shed Distributors, and their link to wholesaler’s and manufacturers. The results are surprising and show that while there is a good degree of competition in the distributor[3] and wholesaler[4] sector, the manufacturer [5]sector is exclusively tied to Bluescope as a source of their steel.

The graph below shows that Bluescope has dominance on the shed distribution chain and hence will have significant pricing power. The “Unknown” comes from ambiguity in some of the manufacturer company reports as they source some of the Cold Rolled steel from Bluescope, however it is not clear how much they source from China or elsewhere, it could be the “Unknown” quantity falls to Bluescope. As you can see there are few distributors that do not directly or indirectly source their products from Bluescope.

This graph shows that even in Roll Forming Bluescope has significant market dominance across the distributors of Australia. This again shows that the competition is almost limited to a duopoly and the barrier to entry is very high due to the vertical integration of the supply chain and the high capital costs associated with this process. Titan Sheds and Garages has made successful inroads into this arena, using its distributor network in QLD and NSW to successfully become a specialized shed roll former in their own right.

This looks much more promising from a competition point; however when you take a closer look into who actually owns the largest distributors, some layers of the onion start to unfold….. Stramit owns both Fair Dinkum Sheds and Garage World, while Lysaght (Bluescope) owns Ranbuild.

This shows that the independents own just less than 50% of the distributor market and the two big players have slightly over 50%.

An extremely interesting market when you look at this. Bluescope has vertical integration from the production of their Cold Rolled Steel, Roll Forming to distribution. However, nestled in each stage of the supply chain they have a wholesaler division that is servicing other companies. A very interesting and a very powerful pricing position indeed. Micheal Porter would be proud of Bluescope for ticking off each one of his competitive advantage points!

There are quite a few things in Bluescopes favor regarding price rises and sheds

Sheds are still a multiple cheaper than the substitute products of brick and steel.

Steel is well suited to Australian climate

The supply chain with steel sheds is sophisticated and impressive

The simplicity of erection is hard to beat and results in quicker time to completion.

Does this indicate that sheds are more expensive than they need to be? Are Steel price rises that are being passed onto the distributors reflected in the international steel prices and even iron ore spot prices?

Do you want more detailed analysis than this report provides? Shedeye has a detailed report that gives state and geographical information on the shed distributor market in Australia. Please contact support@shedeye.com.au to request this report.

[1] This report is based on the number of distributors and may not accurately reflect true steel volumes. For example one distributor may be selling as much as 3 distributors by volume. Comprehensive steel volume data is not available and is very difficult to ascertain accurately. That said analyzing the links in the supply chain to distributors does give you a very good idea of market control and dominance.

[2] This applies only to custom designed sheds; prefab sheds such as Abasco and Spanbuilt are not included in the analysis. Even though they do represent a good percentage of Shed sales in Australia.

[4] The Wholesalers are the Brands or buying groups (Fairdinkum, Ranbuild, Garage World, Sidach, Titan) and they handle the sourcing of shed components, ordering from the manufacturer, the software and engineering.

[5] Manufacturers are defined as a company taking the raw Cold Rolled Steel product and Roll Forming it into a product. Also commonly called Roll Formers.

Hello, I write the ROOFING BLOG with my latest article on sheds (and also fencing) that is questioning the major player, regulators, ShedSafe etc – all questions I am trying to explore with no success! I happened across your website SHEDEYE which seems to contain all the info regarding the shed industry without the affiliations to other companies with seem to be rife in this commercial sector.

Could it be possible that a link to your website be included for my readers to follow up this very confusing industry?

My article which I am endeavouring to explore this industry is below, and I really only need to link a new article with the questions to your website to answer these!

Regards
The Roofer of the Roofing Blog
http://roofing.bigblog.com.au/index.do

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The answer to this question is a resounding YES. You have effectively hit the nail on the head Roofer, Shedeye is independent with NO affiliations Shedeye Conflict of interest disclosure. We agree that the Shed industry is an extremely difficult industry to navigate, the whole point of this site actually! Shedeye has done an enormous amount of research, and we have the article you need!!! Stay tuned!

To our readers, I recommend that you take a look at the Roofing Blog http://roofing.bigblog.com.au/index.do, it is an excellent look at the roofing industry and it has quite a bit of overlap with the shed industry and deals with quite a few of the same players!